ipu was born at Devanahalli, in Kolar District, some 45 miles east of Bangalore, probably on 20th November 1750. He was the second son of Haidar Ali and his second wife, Fatima or Fakr-un-nissa. Her father, Muin-ud-din, was Governor of the Fort of Cuddapah, and her uncle died fighting for Haidar Ali at the Battle of Porto Novo in 1781.

There has long been some uncertainty about the exact date of Tipu's birth: Beatson, quoting Allan, gives 1749; Kirmani gives 1750; and Wilks, writing between 1810-17, vigorously defends a date early in 1753: 'It is singular that there should be any doubt regarding his age, at the time of his death. By a genealogical tree, in my possession, prepared, as I conclude, from the records of the palace, by the English officer charged with the immediate care of the family, he was fifty and a quarter years by the Girra at the time of his death; of course lunar, as are all accounts so kept; this would make his age by the solar reckoning about forty-eight years and nine months, and the date of his birth about July 1750. Butcherow repeated to me the Canarese verse, recording his birth, in the year Angeera, 17th of the month Margeser, which would date his birth about January 1753, and his age at the time of his death, (as Butcherow, a confidential public officer, positively affirmed), forty-six years and four months, solar reckoning. the first of these accounts can scarcely be correct; Hyder married, or was betrothed to the mother of Tippoo in Coromandel, in 1750. Tippoo was certainly born at Deonhully, and Hyder did not return thither till 1751. He was again in Coromandel in 1752, whence his wife was probably sent to Deonhuly on the occasion of her pregnancy, for he himself remained in Coromandel til 1755.'

Husain, who gives Friday, the 20th Zil-Hijja, 1163 AH (November 20th 1750) as Tipu's birth date, also mentions that his mother had been living at Devanahalli ever since its capture by the Mysoreans in 1749 Although the event attracted little attention at the time, the birth of Tipu Sultan was destined to shape two centuries of history in India. Even today, that destiny has had little impact on Devanahalli. The Chairman of the Tipu Sultan Research Institute and Museum, Mohammad Moienuddin, reflects on this in the epilogue of his recent book. Sunset at Srirangapatam: '35km away from Bangalore, in a sleepy street of Devanahalli, amidst rundown surroundings and a murky body of water, filled with lush green hyacinth behind, stands a small enclosed structure, with a sign announcing that this was where Tipu was born.'